Fear, anger and resolve poured out of Bay Area Jewish leaders after an attacker shot and killed a young couple attending a Jewish event Wednesday night in Washington, D.C.
Police arrested a suspect immediately after the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum, where the American Jewish Committee was hosting an event. The suspect chanted “free, free Palestine” after he was detained, according to D.C. police.
Both of the victims, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, worked at the Israeli Embassy, which is also where they met. They had planned to get engaged in Jerusalem next week.
In the Bay Area, the suspect’s rhetoric has refocused attention on security concerns stemming from segments of the pro-Palestinian movement, which is generally nonviolent but has emerged as a potent, decentralized force on city streets, on college campuses and at Jewish events perceived to support Israel. The movement at times employs violent, hateful and extremist language aimed at Israel and Zionists.
Marco Sermoneta, Israel’s consul general for the S.F.-based Pacific Northwest region, described the D.C. shooting as the inevitable result of an escalation in anti-Israel rhetoric across multiple spheres of American life.
“When you peddle in blood libels against Jews, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it ends up leading to blood on the streets,” Sermoneta told J.
Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel, some pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests in the Bay Area have turned violent. A February 2024 riot against an Israeli speaker at UC Berkeley left Jewish students injured, and a series of arson attacks in Berkeley last summer included the firebombing of a police vehicle. A pro-Palestinian activist has been charged with the arsons.
D.C. police identified Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago as the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting. An eyewitness told Jewish Insider that after the shooting, the suspect started screaming, “I did it, I did it. Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza.”
The D.C. event was AJC’s annual Young Diplomats Reception and focused on humanitarian issues in the Middle East. Its theme, “Turning Pain Into Purpose,” took on new resonance after the attack.
Seth Brysk, AJC’s regional director based in S.F., was chatting online with colleagues across the country just moments before the shooting.
“Immediately, of course, we were concerned for everyone’s safety,” he told J. “And then the news started to trickle in.”
AJC, a global advocacy organization, will not stop its work even amid tragedy, he said.
“We are going to be unwavering in our dedication to our work, to protect the Jewish people and to continue to pursue a better world,” Brysk said.
Danielle Chetrit, co-founder and director of Bay Area Jewish events group Malka Productions, said the incident deeply affected her. Malka events have been repeatedly targeted by disruptive protesters even though the group does not publicly identify the location of its gatherings.
“I was barely able to sleep last night. I was shaken to my core,” she told J. “This hits extremely close to home.”
For Chetrit, the attack immediately brought up memories from last May when masked protesters threw red paint at attendees entering an Oakland venue for a Malka event. Two months prior, a Malka and Value Culture event featuring Miss Israel drew masked protesters across the street from San Francisco’s Congregation Sherith Israel after they poured out fake blood in a nearby park.
Since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war and the sharp rise in protests it sparked, many Jewish and Israeli groups in the Bay Area and across the U.S. have stopped publicizing the location of events before they happen to prevent disruptions.
That isn’t always possible. An Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performance was disrupted by protesters inside San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall in March.
Rafi Brinner, senior director of community security at the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, said keeping the location of events private is considered a best practice in terms of security.
Brinner, whose role includes coordinating with the Secure Community Network, the Jewish organization that monitors threats nationwide, quickly sent an advisory notice to organizations across the Bay Area on Wednesday night.
The notice did not indicate an elevated threat level in the Bay Area. It specifically noted that the D.C. attack was “not part of a wider, coordinated threat against Israeli interests or the Jewish community.”
He said one of its main takeaways is that security officials at Jewish events must be fully aware of what is happening not only on the event’s grounds but in its vicinity. In the D.C. attack, the suspect reportedly was seen pacing outside the venue before the shooting.
Security personnel “awareness should be directed outwards, not just inwards,” Brinner said.
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The Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area — the most publicly active local Jewish group speaking out against antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric and behavior since Oct. 7 — decried the shooting.
“For many months, we have expressed grave concern about the increasingly inflammatory and violent rhetoric directed at Israelis and Jews around the world in the wake of the war in Gaza,” the JCRC said in a statement. “Instead, these chants and phrases have become increasingly normalized, with devastating consequences.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-S.F.), a Jewish progressive who has been routinely harassed in public by pro-Palestinian protesters, linked the shooting to forms of antisemitism that have existed “for millennia.”
“The massive proliferation of conspiracy theories, demonization, dehumanization, and stereotyping of Jews — perpetuated on social media, in politics, in our schools, in social gatherings, and other spaces — has consequences and leads to violence,” he said in a statement.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who is Jewish, described the attack as “senseless” and “targeted” in a statement on X.
“I’ve spoken with Jewish leaders in San Francisco, and I know many people are afraid. They should know their mayor and their city are working every day to keep them safe,” he said in the post.
JCRC Bay Area CEO Tye Gregory told J. that community support is vital at times like these.
“Everyone should think about going to shul over the weekend, or a JCC, or a Jewish community event, or gathering with their friends,” he said. “As people reflect on this, they should be in community and they should be out and be seen as Jews right now. That’s how we fight back.”
JTA contributed to this report.